Today, on May 14, as part of the Estonian Defence Forces’ exercise “Siil”, the nationwide public warning system EE-ALARM was activated for the first time, including sirens in 22 towns and the surrounding areas of Tallinn.
As part of the pre-alert (at 11:00), information was shared via the “Eesti app”, the “ERR Uudised app”, err.ee, ETV and ETV+, as well as by SMS. Due to technical issues, the pre-alert via the “Ole Valmis!” app was delayed significantly more than planned. The SMS notifications eventually reached an estimated 1.5 million devices, but such a large number of messages being sent at once meant that some recipients received them more than half an hour later than intended. Within the first 15 minutes, around 700,000 mobile phones had received the SMS alert.
For the main alert phase (at 15:00), the “Eesti app” and “Ole Valmis!” app sent out notifications. ETV, ETV+, err.ee, and the “ERR Uudised” app also delivered the test alerts. The SMS distribution followed a similar pattern to the morning pre-alert. Delays were identified in the app notifications, which are currently being analysed by the Information System Authority (RIA) and the Women’s Voluntary Defence Organisation (Naiskodukaitse).
As part of the main alert, the government also activated the siren network. In two-thirds of the locations, the emergency sirens went off on time. However, in most of the remaining areas, there were delays, and in a few places, the sirens failed to activate altogether. The Information Technology and Development Centre of the Ministry of the Interior (SMIT) is currently compiling a more detailed overview. SMIT has started analysing the identified issues in the overall system.
This first-time activation provided essential knowledge and experience of the current processes and communication channels. The shortcomings identified will now be analysed by the Ministry of the Interior, the Estonian Rescue Board, the Emergency Response Centre, the Information System Authority, SMIT, and the Women’s Voluntary Defence Organisation.
We encourage the public to provide feedback at the website kriis.ee.
This was the first test of the public warning system on such a wide scale, which allows for an assessment of its performance in a real-life situation and helps to identify areas for improvement.
For more information, visit www.olevalmis.ee or call the national information line 1247.
